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In a highly competitive but extremely dour encounter Rugby Lions just managed to maintain their one hundred percent home record with a close win over Macclesfield. The game began in bright sunshine, but a very heavy downpour soon after the kick-off did not help the Lion’s cause in their attempts to play expansive rugby. Instead they were drawn into an old fashioned forward’s battle where again the visitor’s one and only tactic was the maul.

The early exchanges were fairly even and the game warmed up when Toby Handley took exception to a Macclesfield player coming through offside at a ruck and tried to pull him out of the way. This resulted in a few handbags flying with Matt Davies and Macclesfield’s Robert Bieniasz being singled out for a spell in the sin-bin.

Macclesfield were first on the scoreboard when Ross Winney slotted a penalty conceded for offside. Rugby’s James Hawken replied almost immediately to even the score. A nice back line move freed Dominic Wareing down the right hand touchline, but his inside pass a yard from the try line was intercepted and the danger cleared.

Back came Macclesfield and following a series of mauls, they eventually crossed the line for a converted try. A lovely chip and chase by Toby Handley resulted in a penalty for Rugby when the ball was not released. The resulting lineout saw Tristan Wati feed Matt Davies who made for the try-line. He was held a metre short but the ball was blatantly picked out of the Lion’s ruck and the culprit Jeremy Bostock was rightly shown a yellow card. Lions opted for a scrum in front of the posts but appeared to lose the initiative when the ball was knocked on. Macclesfield’s clearance kick from the scrum failed to find touch however and Hawks ran the ball back almost to the visitor’s 22. The ball was then spun wide with Ade Hales coming in to the line in familiar fashion to combine with Matt Goode who fed Dominic Wareing on the right hand touchline. Dominic is not only fast but also extremely strong and easily brushed aside two defenders to score in front of the clubhouse. James Hawken converted superbly to even the score at 10-10.

Macclesfield had the last say in the first half when Ross Winney slotted a penalty in the ninth minute of injury time.

Lions began the second half well with Wareing and Goode making strong runs to take play to the visitor’s try line. Rugby showed that they too could maul and Tristan Wati was driven over for the try in the second minute although the conversion was missed. With what little wind there was behind them, Lions began to dominate territory despite the play being scrappy with numerous errors being committed due to the greasy ball.

Neill Underhill came on to replace Nick Sharpe with James Wadey switching to number eight. Wilf Barclay was then harshly shown a yellow card for handing in a ruck despite the ball being clearly well off the ground. After Macclesfield had messed up their own ball, Toby Handley put Ade Hales clear down the left and after he had outstripped his opposite number a try looked inevitable. The visitor’s fullback David Jones had other ideas and somehow got across to bundle Ade into touch a metre short of the line.

Macclesfield were struggling to get out of their own half at this stage and James Hawken converted a penalty to make the score 18-13. The excellent Toby Handley then picked up a nasty cut to his head and was replaced by Tim Douglas with Sam Viggars moving to scrumhalf. Tim’s first run was halted by a high tackle and with the referee indicating a penalty, Tommy went for a drop goal knowing that a kick in front of the posts would follow should he miss. Somewhat surprisingly the decision was a 22 metre drop-out.

Rugby continued to play out the remaining time in the visitor’s half for a deserved victory. With the news that Preston had surprisingly lost at home to Hull, the league is now wide open.

Although certainly not a pretty game to watch it proves that Lions can compete up front and the pack performed admirably again. With the heavier grounds approaching this bodes well. Next week sees a break from league rugby with the visit to Webb Ellis Road of Dudley Kingswinford in the National Trophy.

Karl Braband